THE Scottish Tory leader’s suggestion that he’d seek a coalition with Labour to oust the SNP from power has been branded “desperate and undemocratic”.
Asked yesterday if he would do a deal with Labour after the Holyrood 2021 election, Douglas Ross said he would “work with anyone and everyone” to get his policies enacted.
The SNP’s depute leader Keith Brown accused the Moray MP of “desperately trying to put the Better Together band back together in an increasingly pitiful attempt to shore up a Union that continues to fail Scotland”.
READ MORE: Douglas Ross hints he’d work with Labour to oust SNP at Holyrood
The Conservatives have said there will be no independence referendum for a generation – with Alister Jack suggesting that could mean between 25 and 40 years – while Labour say they’ll oppose a new vote until at least 2026.
“Both the Tories and Labour’s Trump-like denial of Scotland's democratic right to hold an independence referendum is doomed to fail,” Brown commented.
“The Union is in deep trouble, totally undermined by the biggest power grab in the history of devolution and Boris Johnson’s plan to impose a devastating extreme Brexit, against Scotland's will, in the middle of a global pandemic.
“As for Richard Leonard, he claims on his watch Scottish Labour will never help deliver Tory policies – except, it appears, when it comes to blocking indyref2 regardless of the democratic choice of the Scottish people.”
READ MORE: Boris Johnson claims devolution 'disaster' comment was reported inaccurately
Ross made the comments at the start of the Scottish Tory conference, telling members independence is a greater threat to the Union than socialism.
“[The SNP] want to tear us apart from our friends, our family and our colleagues in England, Wales and Northern Ireland,” he claimed.
This morning the Prime Minister spoke at the conference in a pre-recorded speech.
He addressed news that he called devolution a “disaster” and Tony Blair’s “biggest mistake”, claiming reports were not made “entirely accurately”.
He insisted he was criticising the SNP’s handling of devolution rather than devolution itself.
Scottish Tories had reportedly been furious with the comments, while they attracted cross-party condemnation.
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